The Journey

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." ~ Lao Tzu

Or, in my case, a thousand "one steps," in all directions.

If I had left imprints of all the steps I've taken on this thousand-mile journey of my life (remember the Sunday comic, "Family Circus?"), the path would resemble nothing so much as an enormous wad of tangled yarn, with no end piece to mark the beginning of the journey, the conclusion, or even the direction taken.

I am 58 years old now, with no clearer picture of my "path" than ever.

I think I'm pretty much done with adventure in this lifetime, yet -- as I write that, a little voice is screaming, "NOOoooooo!" When I was young, I never understood the expression, "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Well, hell's bells I understand it now. Every single day is a battle of wills; the Peter Pan inside my head yearning for youthful adventures, at thunderous loggerheads with my aging, ever-lazier body whimpering, "come back to bed."

A more fitting quote for me: "Inside every old person is a young person screaming, 'what the hell happened??'"

A Recipe Offering from Sarah

Sarah posted about this on Facebook today, and I kinda whined about wanting the recipe on my blog, so here it is! Sounds really light and refreshing; just what we need for these hot, humid, dog days of summer. Thanks, Sarah!!

From Moosewood Cookbook (revised edition).

Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup

4 cups peeled, seeded, and grated cucumber

2 cups water, 2 cups yogurt

1/2 to 1 tsp salt

1 small clove garlic, minced

1 tsp dried dill or 1 T fresh

minced fresh mint and chives

Combine everything except mint/chives and chill.  Serve topped with minced mint/chives.

Sarah's notes: I decided to puree instead of leaving chunky so I didn't bother grating the cukes or mincing the garlic or herbs, just tossed everything into a blender (did it in two batches).  I used a large clove of garlic and fresh dill and tossed the mint in when I pureed instead of keeping it to the side - didn't use chives.  Flavor was awesome but it was a little thin so next time I'll probably only use 1 cup of water.

So. I have decided that portion control is as big a problem for me as what I actually eat, so starting today, I am actually going to start following SERVING SIZES. I KNOW, radical, right? Turns out I underestimated the serving size of blueberries, but I started the day with 3/4 c of whole-grain cereal (actually a combination of two, one with flax and one with quinoa), 1/2 c. blueberries (turns out it should have been one cup), 1 banana, a small handful (literally - I was taught by a doctor how to measure a serving of nuts in your hand) of almonds, toasted, and a cup of 2% milk. (I normally would buy skim, but for some reason the store was out of 1/2 gallons. Weird.)

I feel so virtuous. I know it will be hard at first to teach my body that I am actually getting enough food, but I am sure I will grow accustomed to the new regimen OK. I am also going to start using the "1/2 plate vegetables" technique. I'm told that the book, "Mindless Eating," is an excellent wake-up call about the way we consume food. Haven't read it, but I think I should.

Beating the Heat into Tasty Submission

Holy Oh My Goodness!! What a delightful way to cool off in this disgusting heat!! A friend gave me this recipe: Watermelon, Feta, and Fresh Mint Salad. That's it. That's all that's in this. Sorry, D-Day, about the feta... perhaps there is some substitute that you can come up with. But yikes, this is so freaking good. I was told no specific quantities or ratios, but I'll tell you what I used: 1 personal-sized watermelon, probably made about 4 or 5 cups of cut-up pieces; about 1/4 lb feta, crumbled, and about 3 or 4 stems-worth of mint leaves, chopped up.

This recipe is seriously going on my Take To Summer Gatherings list!! Hope you try it, and ENJOY!

Spicy Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayonnaise

These sound AMAZING! I just got this recipe in my inbox, and had to share! Let me know if you try it before I do!

Enchiladas, part deux, and other stuff

Here's the recipe for homemade enchilada sauce, which sounds delicious. I have been so frustrated that nobody, I mean NOBODY sells anything but Mild enchilada sauce, even International markets! Appalling. Anyway, I have a great recipe for green enchilada sauce, but this one sounds much more like what I grew up with: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianmexicanrecipes/r/enchiladasauce.htm

ALSO, I would like to humbly apologize to my Peruvian chicken for finding it less than satisfactory last night. I just had some for lunch, and it was delicious! I guess it just had to rest a while (don't we all), but it was very tasty today. I did add some more lime juice to the dipping sauce; it tasted a bit too mayonnaise-y (which is saying a lot, coming from a mayo junkie). I was bummed to find that I didn't have any yellow mustard (how is that even possible? Does anyone Ever run out of yellow mustard??), so I used dijon, which just doesn't have the right flavor for this sauce. Maybe that's what I found disappointing last night, who knows? The extra lime juice definitely helped.

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New Topic (see that cute little line up there?):
Yesterday and today I have for some inexplicable reason neglected to eat breakfast. I realize there are some people out there who Never eat breakfast, but I am not and have never been one of them. I like breakfast. I am hungry in the morning, so I like to break my fast. Except yesterday and today. What the hell. Yesterday was particularly bad, because I also didn't eat lunch. I just didn't even think about it until I was on the train on the way into DC in the early afternoon. This just never happens to me. Because I was going to a sketching session at a museum, I did not have the opportunity to rectify the situation (mostly because I didn't want to pay buttloads of money for crappy food in the museum cafe) until I got home, around 5:30. NOT GOOD, people.

You would have thought that after a day of hunger like that I would have been more attentive to my needs today and actually eaten breakfast. Huh.

It's kinda funny, now that I know that I have blood sugar issues, I am much more aware of what I put into my mouth (which is obviously a good thing); and having cared for my diabetic mother I definitely know such things as the importance of regular meals to maintain more steady BS levels (knock it off... that stands for blood sugar, Not bull sh*t, of which I am admittedly a prolific purveyor), so why why WHY would I allow myself to go all day without food??

This behavior must be nipped in the bud.

I'm wondering if it is partly due to my lack of imagination when it comes to breakfast. Eggs and toast is pretty much my norm, and it's pretty boring; I'm not a big cold cereal girl - not because I don't like it, but mostly because I never have milk in the house, and when I do it goes bad before I've had a chance to consume it; hot cereal seems cumbersome to make in the morning, and honestly... oatmeal?? UGH. Probably wouldn't kill me to develop a taste for it, but I think it would need some serious embellishment.

SO. If any of you dear people have zippy quick and tasty ideas for breakfast (and cheap. Cheap is good, too), feel free to share them. Thanks for playing.

Recipes!

I have it on good authority (thanks, Marnie!) that this recipe is very tasty, so I'm sharing it here! It sounds delicious, so I will try these Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas at my earliest opportunity!

In the meantime, this is what I'm starting tonight, just to marinate. I will cook it tomorrow. If you've never had Peruvian Chicken, you are SO missing out! This recipe is pretty close to the yumminess you get at any of the various Pollo a la Brasa places around here.

PERUVIAN CHICKEN

1 4lb chicken
4 T white vinegar
3 T white wine
3 T canola oil
2 ½ T garlic powder
2 T paprika
2 T cumin
2 t black pepper
1 t salt
juice of 1 lemon
1 qt cold water

Combine vinegar, wine, and oil with garlic powder, paprika, cumin, pepper, and salt. Mix well.

Add lemon juice to cold water. Trim excess fat from chicken. Wash chicken thoroughly with lemon water. Place chicken in a ziplock bag; pour spice mixture over chicken, rubbing it into every surface. Try to get as much spice mixture under the skin as much as possible. Seal chicken in bag and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. (The longer it marinates, the better, just not more than 24 hours.) 

Preheat oven to 300° and cook chicken for 1 ½ hours, or until cooked through. Add a couple tablespoons of water to the marinade, and baste the chicken with it every 15 minutes or so while it's baking. Make sure the last glazing has time to cook thoroughly.


DIPPING SAUCE

½ c mayonnaise
2 T mustard
3 T lime juice
1 T chili-garlic sauce (Asian), or to taste